Baltimore County schools to begin live- streaming school board meetings

Erica L. Green

Beginning this week, the Baltimore County school system will begin live-streaming its bi-weekly school board meetings on its website, in part for the public's convenience but also to continue fulfilling a pledge to be more transparent, officials said.

The meetings, normally held the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, can be watched here. The first meeting of the month starts at 7:00 p.m. The second meeting each month, typically a work session, begins at 6:30 p.m.

“The Board has pledged transparency and open communication with the public in the conduct of its business,” the county's Board President Lawrence E. Schmidt said in a release from the school system. “To fulfill that pledge, I am pleased that our meetings will be broadcast live so that the BCPS community of parents, students, teachers, and staff will have immediate access to the Board’s proceedings and business.”

New county schools Superintendent Dr. S. Dallas Dance, a huge proponent of all-things technology said in the same statement: “Our 21st century culture demands information, immediacy, and connectedness, especially about issues that are important to education. Both the Board of Education and the school system have pledged a more open, more accessible BCPS, and live-streaming is one more resource we can offer to advance that promise.”

The county also has its own station, BCPS-TV (formerly called The Education Channel) which has broadcast since 1983. The school system is promoting a new episode of "BCPS News,” will be on air through Sunday, November 18. The new show is hosted by local broadcaster Mary Beth Marsden.